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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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DETAILING THE ONLY FEASIBLE METHOD OF 
BUOOD-NEST INVERSION, CONTRACTION, 
AND EXCLUSION — BY THE USE 
OF BROOD FRAMES IN COM- 
BINATION WITH QUEEN- 
EXCLUDING METALS. 



Jls Invented ^om Kpplfcd t»y 



PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, 

BRADFORD, IOWA. 
1890. 






APR 171890 \ 



COPYRIGHT 

by 

C. W. DAYTON. 

1890. 
Rights Reserved. 






PrefacB. 



The new apicultural implement herein of- 
fered for inspection by the honey-producing 
fraternity, began its existence about six years 
ago. I liave always made it my aim to study 
out and put into practice new and better ideas 
by which I might benefit both my friends and 
myself. I have for several years watched and 
used the different devices calculated to confine 
the queen without certain portions of the hive, 
intended to avoid the presence of brood in the 
surplus, and the propagation of supplies of 
brood to support when there was no expectan- 
cy of there being honey to gather. After long 
meditation upon the subject, the idea suggest- 
ed itself to me, about five years ago, instead 
of guarding apartments from the queen, as is 
usually done, why not restrain the queen from 
the apartments? 



4 

With this idea as a motor. I set myself 
about devising liives and fixtures to accomplish 
the special purpose, i. e., to conline the queen 
within reasonable limits. 

As the result I am enabled to oft'er to my 
friends and the bee -keeping fraternity in gen- 
eral, an entirely new and original work on bee- 
keeping, an entirely new^ and original device 
to used in the apiary and an entirely new and 
original system of management for the pro- 
duction of honey. I say new and original be- 
cause the method originated with me and has 
never before, so far as I can lind out. been 
published or practiced by any person in the 
world. 

It is a system that should have been in- 
troduced long ago as the best managements 
now in practice are much less practical, scien- 
tific or economical in their treatment of the 
queen. Were it not that it may be as helpful 
to others as to myself I might remain silent. 
I am sure that with its help, more honey can 
be secured, in better shape, and with less la- 



bor, when the other conditions are alike, than 

can be obtained by any otlier known method. 

The device is composed of a combination 

of six separate inventions none of which have 

ever been described in any book or journal. 

C. W. Dayton. 
Bradford, Iowa. Feb.. 1890. 




{qtroductioq. 



As I was engaged at binding wheat in 
July. 1879. a swarm of bees passed over our 
heads and settled upon a bush at the edge of 
the field. The farmer, by whom I was em- 
ployed, left his work and put them in a hive 
he chanced to have near at hand. By this oc- 
currence my attention was drawn to a half-doz- 
en other hives of bees belonging to the farmer 
that before had remained unnoticed. This 
was the first tliat I had ever paid any attention 
to honey bees, whatever. 

Prom this time onward, as long as the 
binding lasted, I spent my spare moments by 
the hives, morning, noon and evening, study- 
ing the habits of the bees, and the more I studi- 
ed the greater was my interest and curiosity. 



Two years more passed when I again found 
employment with a farmer who owned fifty to 
sixty colonies of bees. Here I assisted in the 
work of fixing hives, putting together sections, 
etc. in the absence of other farm labor. Here^ 
also, I became acquainted with King's Text 
Book, which, in my opinion, is the best in- 
structor for beginners yet out. This book was 
nearly committed to memory, as also w^as 
Root's A B C of Bee Culture, and Cook's Man- 
ual of the Apiary, obtained later in the season. 

The next June (1882) eleven colonies of 
bees were purchased, and with that event be- 
gan my practice in apiculture, though I con- 
tinued at farm labor as before, handling bees 
only at odd times. I devoted my apiarj^ to the 
increase of colonies, and with what was earn- 
ed working for others I was enabled to build 
new hives, purchase an extractor and other 
needed supplies so that the season of 1883 found 
me engaged my own employer and a special- 
ist in bee keeping and I subscribed for the 
Amrican Bee Journal and Gleanings in Bee 



9 

Culture. 

It was in the latter part of the season of 
1883 that reversible frames began to command 
almost unbounded attention. Nearly every 
one invented. I invented a frame unlike any 
of those described, but soon came to the con- 
clusion that reversible frames were not what 
they were ■• cracked up to be/' and gave the 
matter up. The following winter the idea of 
inversion in conjunction with contraction was 
perceived. Contraction of the brood cham- 
bers, to crowd the bees into the surplus apart- 
mxents. was then receiving very unusual atten- 
tion in the bee journals at the pens of such 
masters as Heddon, Hutchinson, and the Da- 
dants. In the spring of 1884. a small, lightly 
constructed hive was devised, carrying a set 
of frames of reduced dimensions, to be manip- 
ulated on the inside of the regular hives. This 
small hive was experimented with through 
the following season and cast aside in the fall 
as impracticable for the purpose for which it 
was intended. 



1© 

Toward the spring of 1885 my study drift- 
ed back again to the then much discussed ques- 
tions of inversion and contraction. It was my 
idea at that time, and it is still my belief, that 
some fixture may or ought to be devised that 
will associate the principles of reversion, con- 
traction and exclusion in so simple and con- 
venient a manner as to give anew, precipitate 
impetus to apiculture nearly equal to that pro- 
duced by the introduction of the suspended 
frame. I considered the contrivances in use 
so complicated that their application nearly 
obliterated their advantages. 

Having failed to produce anything worth 
keeping in my experiments with the small hive 
I now concluded that the only hope for success 
lay in the arrangement of the frames. First, 
frames with bars 1^ inch in width were made 
and clamped together with straight sheets of 
perforated zinc tacked on the side of the out- 
side frames. In this shape the device served 
the purposes of experiment during the season 
of 1885; the advanta^reof frames with narrow- 



11 

er bars to facilitate extraction of the honey 
was perceptible but was not put to actual test. 
During the winter of 1885-6, the frames 
were narrowed down to one inch in width and 
otherwise changed, added to and improved so 
that it bore this description, which I copy from 
the American Bee Journal, of that year. 

^ The 'restrictor'' is adapted to four frdmes, but 
there may be from two to eight. The frame material 
should be one inch in width all around; as that is the 
best width for both brood and extracting-. Material of 
any thickness will do, so that the side-bars will be strong- 
after having- holes made through them. It wants four 
frames of this description, the same size of the other 
brood-frames used in the apiary, leaving off the pro- 
jecting- arms. Then live others of the same dimensions, 
except that they should be f of an inch or a bee-space 
in width. Setting all the frames on a level place, with 
a narrow frame between each two of the others, and a 
narrow one on each outside, they are all clamped to- 
gether and a 3-16 inch hole is made through all of the 
side-bars at once edgewise, and one inch from the top 
or bottom of the frames. These holes are for small, 
flat-headed bolts that just reach through the frames, 
and are secured by a thin, flat nut. The bolts are six 
inches long. 



la 



Before using the bolts two sheets of perforated zinc 
are prepared exactly the size of the frames, and having 
holes in their eiges to fit and correspond with the bolts, 
and be held securely and evenly in place upon the side 
of the outside frames. This completes a quoen-c; ge in- 
to which the bees from the outside arc unrestrained. 
Combs may be built from foundation or transferred 
into them from other fram:!S. 

It is also furnished with projecting wires ins rted 
in the ends of the top-bars, near each of the four upper 
corners, and which wires are capable of removal to the 
other corresponding corners of the jirrangemcnt upon 
its inversion. Reversion is said to be a preventive of 
swarming by turning the queen-cells out of natural po- 
sition, and being destroyed by the bees. " 

In March, 1887. strips of perforated zinc 
sgr\ were substituted for the nar- 
[]P] row frames, except those on 
the outside, and the extra 
frames consigned to the wood- 
pile. In the first place the 
zincs were fitted into saw 
kerfs made in the edge of the 
frames, but finally found a 
permanency lying flat on the outside of the 




13 




frames. 

After the addition of the perforated side 
zincs thfi fixture remained 
without change for two years 
until the spring of 1889, when 
the j-inoh crimp was given 
to the sheet of zinc on the 
outside and the remaining 
narrow frames were omitted. This afforded 
ample space for adjusting the nuts and the pro- 
jecting bolt-heads. 

In the fall of 1889, the nuts w^ere changed 
for metal wedges fitting into slots with which 
the bolts are provided. A reversing device, 
also, was made to take the place of the old 
nails and wires as a more convenient arrange- 
ment. 



It is advisable to adopt a plain, simple 
and serviceable hive, where the production of 
honey is the object. A plain, unadorned but 
well painted and constructed box is sufficient. 
Its construction should be accurate in all its 
parts. The square, box joint is the easiest 
to construct and the best for extensive manip- 
ulation. The corners to guard against warp- 
ing should be halved and nailed from both ways. 
The size should be determined with reference 
to the use to which it is to be put and the re- 
quirements of the bees. It should be of suf- 
ficient size and shape to aif ord a good amount 
of surplus space above and at the side of the 
brood nest. All the hives in the apiary should 
be of a uniform size and interchangeable. 



The pramB. 

All frames in the apiary should fit equal- 
ly as well into one hive as another. The top 
and bottom bars need to be about i inch in 
thickness and the uprights should be not less 
than ^ inch thick to maintain square and strong 
combs for ease and hasty manipulation. The 
best width for both brood and extracting is 
one inch. Some frame that is a recognized 
standard is the best to choose on account of 
the difference in convenience in obtaining fu- 
ture supplies. The shape or size of the frame 
makes little or no difference in the wintering 
or the amount of honey obtained. 

The frame to be recommended is 9^ x 17| 
inches, which may be safely declared the 
standard frame for the future. 



K 



Bversion. 



Reversion is one of the most necessary ac- 
complishments connected mith the manipula- 
tion of the modern bee-hive. Inversion of the 
combs received a decided impetus about seven 
years ago, and though it then attained a con- 
siderable degree of perfection it may , perhaps, 
be truthfully said to be on the wain. This, 
nevertheless, may not be satisfactory proof 
of its impracticability and that it may not be 
successfully revived again. 

By the inversion of the brood combs the 
bees are caused to extend the combs and fast- 
en them to the bottom bars of the frames thus 
utilizing all the available space within the 
frame. This increased brood-rearing space 
in ordinary hives is 15 to 30 per cent, and an- 



IT 

nihilates largo clustering spaces oscupied by 
idle bees. When honey is stored in the lower 
pDrtions of the brood combs inversion of the 
combs causes the bees to carry it above the 
brood again in which case if the upper portions 
should chance to be already full of brood they 
will be obliged to carry it into the surplus re- 
ceptacles, and as the honey is moved and the 
low^er cells become vacant the queen may have 
a chance to fill them with eggs. 

Another decided advantage of reversion is 
the turning of the queen cells upside down 
which is contrary to Nature, and for which 
reason the cells will be neglected by the bees, 
destroyed by the queen and new ones began 
the other side up. 

As a colony requires to have queen cells 
nearly ready to hatch before casting a swarm 
the operation of inversion projects the time 
of swarming into the future at from five to 
seven days. 



{[antractiaii. 

All bee-keepers who have produced honey 
to much extent, have adopted, or have long 
wished to adopt some method of forcing the 
bees into the surplus receptacles earlier than 
it is their tendency to enter them. 

The principal method of contraction is by 
the use of blocks of wood in the end of the 
hives by the side of the combs containing brood 
and retaining few combs for a brood nest. It 
is the tendency of the queen to spread the 
brood through more combs than is really nec- 
essary. Sometimes the queen will till and 
maintain ten to twelve frames full of brood, 
and this number affords so much vacant 
space for bees to "stand around "that they 
seem to almost never enter the sections for 



19^ 

the construction of combs and the storage of 
honey. 

With the present methods and appliances 
the results intended for realization have been 
only in a measure satisfactory and it is evident 
that when it paid for the labor and expense 
incurred it did nothing more and will not find a 
general acceptance by the great mass of honey 
producers. 

In any of the great functions which have 
striven to b3 entered as a more modern and 
scientific manipulation of the hive, i. e., rever- 
sion, contraction and exclusion, we find those 
implements and contrivances for the accom- 
I)lishm3nt to consist of a single and separate 
line for the purpose of a single, final result. 
What is needed for one is as entirely useless 
for the other. The fact that the manipula- 
tions were most advantageous performed at 
different and distinct periods in the season 
have left unused any combination. 

With the surplus at one side of the brood 
apartment the bees are nearly always slow in 



zo 

the work that always pleases the bee-keeper 
more than anything else. At first large hives 
were used but to avoid so many bees staying 
closely in the brood nest the hives were in 
many apiaries reduced to hold eight frames; 



TWO CASES OF SECTIONS. 



BROOD NEST. 



and still more until the brood nest and surplus 
apartment necessarily assumed a shape shown 
in the diagram. 

The instances are not very rare where the 
brood nests are contracted to four or five 



mi 

frames to pass the hcney harvest. 

It is not unusual that there are queens pro- 
lilio enough to maintain ten combs full of t rood 
up to the end of the harvest when the brood 
cannot but hatch a worthless set of some 50, - 
000 idle boarders. All bees that hatch out in 
the ten days proceeding the end of the har- 
vest are nearly useless also. These two num- 
bers equal 75,000 bees. Reckoning 7, 000 bees 
to a pound it is 10^ pounds. Calling a pound 
of bees a product of three pounds of honey and 
the time and labor of the old bees in caring for 
the brood equal to two pounds it is found to 
be equal to a total equivalent of 52^ pounds of 
hcney which because of the future support of 
these bees is worse than lost. Not all colonies 
show so much loss as this but there usually 
is from five to ten such colonies in every one 
hundred. Most of those colonies that are not 
able to swarm before the harvest are found to 
have the largest quantities of brood in their 
hives during the latter part of the harvest when 
it can hatch nothinof but idle consumers. 



giclusion. 

Exclusion, is as essential in the manage- 
ment of bees as is reversion and contraction. 
Exclusion is a term that when applied to a 
bee-hive means that some of the bees, the 
queen or drones, are excluded from some of 
the apartments of the hive. When there is 
a large number of drones in a colony we may 
wait until they are out of the hive to fly, and 
place strips of perforated metal at the entrance 
that allows worker bees to pass through it to 
enter the hive when the drones on account of 
their large size must stay outside. 

Exclusion for the qaeen, is understood as 
the application of perforated metal at the en- 
trance to prevent the queen leaving with a 
swarm; but exclusion in its broader sense 



as now in use is accomplished by the use of 
the queen-excluding honey-board which pre- 
vents the queen entering the surplus apart- 
ments, which if she were allowed to do would 
result in the sections or extracting combs be- 
ing tilled with brood instead of honey. The 
honey-board is a result of brood-nest contrac- 
tion as the cenfinement of the queen to the 
contracted brood nest in the lower story, 
and then upon as few ccmbs as possible, 
creates a disposition to seek more spacious 
quarters. Again the combs usually left in 
the contracted brood nest are entirely of work- 
er cells so that the want of eggs in drone 
cells starts the queen out for a ramble through 
the hive and on this account we find the queen 
so auctions to go above and put the eggs in 
the surplus combs. 

It is a very satisfying to us when the 
combs for honey contain honey exclusively, 
and the combs that contain brood contain brood 
exclusively. This cannot be done until the 
queen is excluded from the surplus apartments 



2^i 

and confined closely within the brood nest. 



Qld and Hbw. 



The posted reader of this book may 
have learned that the naked manipulations 
beyond the possession of hives, frames and 
cases that are in any way scientific in their 
applciation, and which may almost be called 
the ^reat fundamental principles are Re- 
version. Contraction and Exclusion. This is 
in complete accord with my belief. It is al- 
ready known that the fixtures in use are sin- 
gle, expensive and unsatisfactory, as compar- 
ed to their advantages, insomuch that those 
contrivances and methods are continu- 
ally shifting or being abandoned. Many of 
them, when they accomplished one pur- 
pose rendered another, perhaps a more wor- 
thy one, totally unavailing. In the following 
pages is sliown a new, philosoi^hical and the 
only satisfactory method of brood-nest Inver- 



sion, Contraction and Exclusion yet invented. 

Mark tiie words! I say, brood-nest; not 
liive Inversion, Contraction and Exclusion. I 
have never yet recognized a need to invert, 
or contract a whole hive. 

The present and future interests of api- 
culture need what it almost demands, that is, 
a more practical and thorough method of ac- 
complishing the three principles previously 
mentioned. 




®Iic Btw Sirstcni. 



The idea of the inventor in the original 
conception was based upon the contraction of 
the brood nest without material interferance 
with the regular hive space. 

That the queen is the center round which 
nearly all else revolves, and which center, if 
properly adjusted, will conform the rest to 
the apiarist's pleasure. 

That honey should be stored as near to 
the brood as possible and the interference of 
the queen prevented by establishing a defined 
limit for her operations. 

That the reversible hive idea is too broad, 
and the reversible frame an idea that is too 
narrow for practical or practicable application. 



T^IB QuBBn-I^Bstrictor. 

The Queen-Restrictor consists of: 

First, from two to eight bee-comb frames 
situated side by side, separated by a strip of 
que3n-exclnding zinc. 

Second, strips of excluding metal crimp- 
ed or jjrovided with slots for the frames to 
rest in. 

Third, a broad sheet of excluding metal 
crimped at the edges, fastened upon the out- 
side faces of the outside frames. 

Fourth, the frames, from two to eight, the 
outward sides of the outside frames having 
the sheets of excluding metal secured upon 
them and a strip of excluding metal between 
each frame are fastened together by inserting 
a light bolt through the upright bars of the 



frames from side to side. The fastening is 
comi^leted by the simple adjustment of an or- 
dinary nut or insertion of a wedge in a slot in 
the projecting bolt. One of these bolts is re- 
quired for each end of the fixture. 

Fifth, wires proceeding from staples or 
apertures situated in the center of the uprights 
and equally distant from the top or bottom of 
each outside frame, directly upward and then 
outward from the frame in t'me to rest upon 
the rabbets now in general use in bee-hives. 
One of these wires is needod at each side of 
the fixture. By withdrawing the feet of this 
wire turning them over and adjusting the same 
from the lower part of the device the princi- 
ple of reversion is effected, by turning 
the complete outfit bottom upward. 

Excluding strips are necessary at the 
openings between the bars of the frames and 
are made of ordinary perforated zinc. The 
clasp that forms the rest for the frames is best 
formed of a heavier grade of zinc than is the 
excluder and are made secure by rivets or 



z^ 



solder. In this way they 
aid made stronsr enousrh 



strengthened 



are 

to withstand 



any 



CD nz2 { — I cm dri 



usage that they are liable to by the tension of 
the transverse clamp. The leaflike clasp 
lying upon the inside of the frames are neces- 
sarily small and sharp pointed to be easily and 
quickly adjusted. The frames are spaced i or 
f of an inch apart the main line of zinc lying 
upon the outside and overlaping the edge of the 
frames about 3-16 of an inch. These strips of 
zinc when ready for use being joined together 
at the opposite ends are continuous and hoop- 
like, and instead of being wrapped around, as 
might be done, they are set up on edge and 
the frame pushed into them sidewise the bot- 
tom of the frame ahead. 

The excluding sheets for the side of the 



frames are constructed of the lightest grade 
of zm3 and secured to the frames by two tacks 
or screws one each in the top and bottom bars 
and by the clamping bolts to the upright bars 
by passing through their crimped edges. 

Reversing wires are utilized to accomplish 
the principle of reversion, and are made of No. 
12 wire which is sufficiently strong to hold the 
weight of any five or six frames of brood. Re- 
version is accomplished by them with quick- 
ness and ease and in about the same man- 
ner as with reversible farmes except that the 
tension of the transverse bolts render unneces- 
sary the projections in reversing devices for 
single frames to hold them in an upright po- 
sition. It is the simplest reversing arrange- 
ment yet brought into utility, and is all that 
could be desired. 

The clamps consist of i inch bolts inserted 
in the end bars of the frames from side to side, 
and while they prevent the frames' and zincs' 
sei^aration, they also hold them so they can- 
not slip up or down, and allow one frame 



to drop down lower than another. Unless the 
combs are heavily loaded the excluding strips 
on the outside will nearly hold them in the 
right position without the aid of bolts. The 
length of the bolts is varied by the number of 
frames the Restrictor contains. For four 
frames the length is 6 inches; for five frames 
7^ inches; for six frames 8|. The fastening 
is made by small wedges fitting into slots with 
which the projecting ends of the bolts are pro- 
vided. One such bolt through each end of the 
device has proven amply sufiicient. 

Several devices have been experimented 
with, such as threads and nuts, and disc shap- 
ed contraction metals connected with hooked 
wires to hook over the edge of the outside 
frames that a half turn of the disc will bring 
the ends nearer together. 

The Restrictor is best adapted in hives 
holding about sixteen frames so when the 
queen is confined to the five frames in the 
Restrictor there will be a good amount of space 
on either side for the arrangement of extract- 



33 

ing combs or wide frames of sections. The 
advantage of side storage will be spoken of 
again under contraction. Eight clean worker 
combs should be selected for brood combs 
and provided with single-frame reversing 
wires so when they are not in the Restrictor 
they may hang upon the rabbets and used as 
any other frame. The holes or staples provid- 
ed in the end bars are as suited to the single- 
frame reversing wire 3 as to Restrictor revers- 
ing wires. 

The cost of the Restrictor is the minimum 
of all arrangements yet invented, and is as 
follows, which cost is figured upon a live- 
frame Restrictor. the size that I have designat- 
ed as the standard. Eight new Langstroth 
frames are worth 20 cents. Four excluding 
strips of perforated metal at. 15 cents; two 
sheets of excluding metal 9^^ x 17^ at, 25 cents; 
sixteen single-frame reversing wires, 16 cents; 
two Restrictor-reversing w'res 4 cents; two 
clamping bolts, 5 cents. Total cost of all, 
lurnisliGd now. 85 cents. 



33 

With t]ie Restrictor, all the brood frames 
have re v^ersing wires to make them manipula- 
tive like regular suspended frames, either 
in the brood nest or in the extracting stories. 
Beyond the eight or ten brood frames none 
of the others are changed, or any selec- 
tion made as to what combs are kept in the 
brood chamber. Whether the extra combs in 
the brood chamber contain drone cells or not, 
it makes little difference, as before the 
queen is prepared to extend the brood outside 
of eight regulation brood combs it will be 
time to adjust the zincs and confine her oper- 
ations. This part of the management is ex- 
plained more fully in other parts of this book, 
so I will not follow it out any farther here. 



^Bversion. 

With the use of the Queen- Restrictor 
comes a new plan of reversion. There has 
been no satisfactory reversible hive or frame 
yet invented. For this reason none have been 
generally adopted. Reversing- hives was tru- 
ly a great chore. When the hive was invert- 
ed it carried with it combs that needed no such 
inversion. The arrangement of the frames 
in such hive was expensive and laborious 
and the arrangement usually defeated the 
readily movable character of the frames. Re- 
versing frames involved a large amount of 
fussy labor and, in itself alone, not a very de- 
siarble result. The reversion of the Restric- 
tor inverts the brood combs and nothing more, 
with the same manipulation that is required 



to reverse a single frame. This inversion is 
calculated to cause the failure of the queen 
cells to mature. Some have said, or advanced 
the idea at least, that inversion causes the bees 
to destroy the queen cells because they are 
not in the natural position. I am not prepar- 
ed to dispute the assertion, though I have 
never seen a worker bee attempt to destroy a 
queen cell when so placed. I have repeated- 
ly noticed queens tearing them down direct- 
ly after inversion and that, too, in the height 
of the swarming season. I am inclined to 
the belief that the bees neglect the inverted 
cells when the queen, under almost any cir- 
cumstances, will destroy them. I also know 
that the bees refuse to care for these cells or 
feed the larvae before they are old enough to 
cap, but I have also known some colonies to 
care for them for a time but never knew a 
queen to hatch when the cell was inverted be- 
fore it was capped. If they escaped destruc- 
tion by the queen they seem to have starved 
or died from some cause that I could not de- 



3^ 

tect. This is a part of the system that is still 
open for experiment and verification. 

I may cite the authority that I have no- 
ticed and that is. one of the claims made in 
tlie columns of the American Bee Journal, 
a few months ago, the report of the North 
American Bee-Keepers' Society, for 1885, 
and two short items that subsequently appear- 
ed in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 

However, each and all of these appeared 
to be founded upon the theory that they will 
be destroyed because of the unnatural position 
which theory is not true in the case of other 
brood. I believe it is entirely uncertain 
how and to what extent the queen cells are 
destroyed because of inversion. When the 
ccmbs are reversed it causes quantities of 
honey to be moved from the low^er edges of 
the reversed combs and then a supply of emp- 
ty cells are to have eggs placed in them. Al- 
together there is quite- a disturbance in rear- 
ranging the brood chamber after reversion, 
and this may cause the neglect of the cells. 



When the queen cells are very young they 
will be neglected from very slight causes. 
If this is theory, its substantiation is near at 
hand. It is three days from the time the egg 
is laid until it hatches and two more until the 
cell may be said to be started it may be seen 
that if there are queens raised and the combs 
are reversed once in live days the queens must 
be started in inverted cells. Queens may 
hatch from inverted cells, but to start them in 
inverted cells is decidedly contrary to the in- 
stincts of the bees. 

The Queen-Restrictor, is admirably suited 
for reversion every five days or even every 
three days, requiring as it does, the manipu- 
lation that is required to reverse a single, re- 
versible frame. 



[oqtraction. 

The Queen -Restrictor is especially adapt- 
ed to contraction. With it only the brood 
space occupied by the queen undergoes change. 
That the Restrictor may contain one frame 
or be arranged to contain a baker's dozen makes 
it the most contractible device that can be in- 
vented. Contraction of the brood chamber 
contracts out of existence what should be the 
most accessible surplus space. The queen's 
laying space needs contraction but the surplus 
r pace never does. Some queens do not begin 
to lay to their full capacity until the honey 
harvest begins. Then they begin and keep it 
up at such a rate that it takes all the working 
bees to care for the brood. Starting into a 
honey harvest lasting fifteen to thirty days 



^9 

with brood in four combs they will increase 
till at the end of the harvest there may be 
brood in fifteen to twenty combs. Such queens 
should be restricted to five combs at the be- 
ginning of the harvest. Other queens scatter 
it through the brood and surplus combs so 
that it makes slow, tedious labor in extracting 
from combs that are partly filled with honey 
and partly with brood. Many colonies spend 
nearly ail the h3ney harvest gathering strength 
and when the harvest is ended they are then 
prepared to gather honey. This is a waste of 
time and labor. If a colony is not ready for 
the harvest when it begins they cannot get 
ready afterward. It requires 21 days from 
the egg to hatch a worker bee and 15 days 
more for it to begin work gathering honey. 
From this it may be seen that the eggs for the 
bees that gather honey must be laid 35 days 
previous to the end of the harvest. Any eggs 
that are laid later than this will produce bees 
that can assist but a few days in the w^ork on 
the inside of the hive. In my experience I 



4tO 

have never known a honey harvest to last 30 
days; and on this account I have determined 
to confine the queen upon five combs at or be- 
fore swarming. How to manuge ten combs 
in a five frame Restrictor before the harvest is 
discussed elsewhere. 

The Restrictor contracts the queen's lay- 
ing space only, leaving all the other space for 
the storage of honey. It allows of contraction 
in such a way that the surplus receptacles 
may be arranged above and also on two sides 
of the combs that contain brood. Present 
contraction me th ids have first narrowed the 
hives down to eight and ten frames and driven 
the surplus upstairs. Then "dummies " have 
done still more until a narrow, indirect route 
to the surplus remains, that calls into use a 
disagreeable system of crowding. On many 
occasions the bees are crowded out of the en- 
t: ance before they enter Ihe surplus through 
a narrow parssage way of obstructions as the 
top bars of the frames, honey boards etc. 
miike it. 



At 



On page 20, is the correct shape of the 
modern brood nest and surplus apartment and 
on this page is a more philisophically shaped 



one: 



SURPLUS. 




Honey is stored about the same as brood 
is spread, brginning in the center and extend- 
ed in all directions, but slightly more upward 
than sidewise. If the shape of the surplus 
and brood apartment shown on page 20, is as 
correct as the one on this page, then the bees 
have made the mistake of conforming the 
shape of the cluster into a sphere. 



^2i 

To winter the bees in brood chambers 
whose shape corresponds with the accesibility 
of the surplus apartment in exclusive top stor- 
age they should be as in the following diagram : 



Such a wintering chamber would not be 
tolerated for a single winter, while equally as 
poorly proportioned surplus apartments re- 
main unaltered year after year. 




^xclusioii. 

Exclusion, by the use of the Restrictor is 
of the most absolute kind. As the queen is 
confined upon the combs within it, she can lay 
egg's in those only and the remainder of the 
brood combs that may previously have been 
included in the brood nest may be moved away 
from the Restrictor, toward the ends of the 
hive and wide frames of sections or extract- 
ing combs placed between them, so that the 
traversing back and forth to the differ- 
ent brood combs through the sections en- 
courages the bees to make an early start in 
them, which is an advantage of very great im- 
l^ortance. Thus, practically, placing the sec- 
tions in the center of the brood chamber, but 
in a manner that the queen cannot enter them. 



By the time the queen is prepared to ex- 
tend the egg- laying space to more than eight 
regular brood combs it is time to confine her 
to five clear worker combs. By this opera- 
tion, the saving of drones heads from the knife 
or their destruction afterward is made, few if 
any eggs being laid in drone cells, while the 
bees leave it empty for them and wonder what 
ails the queen that there are no eggs placed 
therein. 

Five frames is all that is necessary for 
brood during the harvest, and that they may 
be occupied by brood exclusively the Restric- 
tor is occasionally reversed. The reversion 
for the destruction of queen cells also accom- 
plishes this end of the system. 

At the end of the harvest the combs out- 
side of the Restrictor that were filled with 
brood when the queen was excluded from them 
have become empty of brood and, if not re- 
placed by sections, are heavy with honey for 
extracting or w ntering, while the five combs 
in the Restrictor, owing to reversion, contrac- 



*s 



tion and exclusion are destitute of honey and 
tilled as solidly with brood. 



I^QW and W^sq to [Jsb the Excluders, 
[ontractors etc. 



The reader, having made himself familiar 
Avith the worlj:ings and use of zincs, clamps, 
reversing wires, etc. as described in the fore- 
going pages will be ready to imagine the api- 
arist, on a pleasant June morning, loaded up 
with the bands of zinc strung upon his arms 
and his pockets filled with bolts and wires 
and all he can carry of zinc sheets, starting 
out into the apiary. Doubtless he intends to 
adjust all of the excluding strips and sheets 
and bolts and reversing wires at once. 

This is not the correct usage of the fixt- 
ures. It is often more killful to know how to 
use an invention than it is to invent the same. 
The Restrictor is not necessarily applied 



in any hive in a single day. It does not come 
into the apiary cyclone fashion — but as a quiet, 
gentle breeze. It comes with a general sys- 
tem of management commencing early in the 
season. 

The sheets are the only thing to 
put on in June. The excluding strips, clamp- 
ing bolts and reversing wires remain on the 
frames through the winter. In fact, they are 
used almost as if they were permanently at- 
tached to the frames. About the only thing 
they need to be removed for is to accommo- 
date a less number of combs for small colonies, 
when to suit the will of the apiarist the 
clamping bolts and reversing wires may be 
taken out and frames and zinc strips separat- 
ed and taken out until the number remaining 
is suitable for the smaller sized colony. In 
changing from live combs to a less number 
the necessity of a smaller and narrower re- 
versing wire and clamping bolt is created, 
which is an extra expense of about 4 cents 
X3er colony. In an apiary of 50 colonies there 



AT 

are usually about 40 colonies that will need 
all of the live combs contained in the Restric- 
tor in the early spring, leaving 10 colonies to 
provide small clamps and reversing wires for. 

The question, how to spread brood, when 
all these zinc-excluding strips are on the brood 
frames, will be asked. It is quite an easy 
matter to separats the frames in the center 
take out a frame of brood and insert an emp- 
ty comb in its place leaving the full comb on 
the outside and which is to be provided with 
single-frame reversing wires and hung upon 
the rabbets the same as common frames. If 
there are five frames in the Restrictor, out of 
a full set of eight there will be three to hang 
upon such supports. The Restristor, in 
spring management is all complete except 
the side sheets are left off so as to allow the 
queen to use all the combs in the hive as fast 
possible. But to return to the spreading of 
brood. With these five frames fastened to- 
gether and reversible, instead of being cofin- 
ed to the prevalent methods of spreading the 



brood horizontally, we may now adopt the plan 
of having the combs filled up to the top bars 
and downward to the bottom bars, by the sim- 
ple reversion of the combs ; thus getting more 
brood in less comb. 



Special Manipulations. 

There is several very interesing manipu- 
lations that may be performed in using the 
Queen-Restrictor the most important of which 
probably is. the arrangement of two laying 
queens in one brood chamber. Having two 
queens in one brood chamber in early spring 
possesses particular advantages in building 
up the weak colonies, by having two colonies, 
one of which one is strong and the other weak, 
arranged in the op]30site ends of a large 
hive. This is to be done by uniting the colo- 
nies, then dividing the brood in two Restric- 
tors close together and introducing a queen to 



AT 

each part. Empty combs should be put in 
on the inside nearest each other and the rate 
at which these inside combs will be filled with 
eggs is truly astonishing — the united warmth 
of two colonies, I believe, being equal to three 
separate ones. One thing to be watched is, 
to keep some empty comb between the two 
brood nests inside the Restrictor. 

As the season advances and the queens 
require more than live combs for egg laying, 
empty ones may be put in the Restrictors. 
The Restrictors are to be moved apart and the 
extra combs of brood set between them. 
When four or live combs have been set out 
of the Restrictors long enough for the eggs 
all to be hatched and these combs have the 
appearance of queenlessness virgin queens 
may bo introduced by the caging method. 
Thus, the laying queens are in the distant ends 
of the hive and the virgin at liberty near the 
entrance. As good or a better way is to use 
tv\^o frames of brood with a wide frame of sec- 
tions on each side of them. 



^o 




. mt 

that have no brood in them, and 3, 3, are two 
frames of brood that have been in the Restric- 
tors but are now provided with single-frame 
reversing" wires to hang upon the rabbets and 
by the time the eggs have all hatched and the 
combs are covered with young bees a vir- 
gin queen may be introduced. 

The foregoing cut represents the hive as 
having the front board nearly cut away, and 
entrance blocks in position that the young 
queen may be guided to her own part of the 
hive on returning from a fly. If young 
queens are not to be introduced sections and 
extracting combs may be arranged in place of 
the center combs and with a wider hive there 
will be surplus room on the distant sides of 
the Restrictors, and then the apiarist may re- 
alize the great advantage in the system, which 
is that as soon as a loaded bee is inside the 
entrance she is just as soon in the honey cham- 
ber, and has not to wend her way across the 
crowded brood combs and then through a 
narrow and crooked passage to reach the hon- 



ey chamber almost exhausted. The New Sys- 
tem transposes these apartments. With the 
prevalent methods the brood nest is readily 
accessible and the surplus difficult to get into. 
With the New System the surplus is most 
readily accessible and the Queen-Restrictor 
as difficult as excluding zinc may make it. 

— mn' 




This cut shows a complete Restrictor 
with the zincs, clamps and reversing wires in 
ase. A large portion of the side sheet is 



S3 

cut away to show the position of the clasps 
on the inside. They are shown as made of 
small pieces of galvanized iron. The clasps 
are better when constructed of tinned wire. 
The clamp also is more convenient and serves 
the purpose equally as well to be a straight 
piece of copper wire to be ben t over at the ends. 

As a matter of economy a five-frame revers- 
ing wire is just right for four frames, and like- 
wise the three-frame is suited to two frames. 

In the cut is also shown a new plan for 
attaching the reversing wires to the frames 
by staples vvh'ch is deemed more satisfactory 
than the old for Restrictors or single frames. 

It will, doubtless, be judged that there is 
much machinery in this arrangement which, 
to consider the live frames in the Restrictor, 
may be a fact, but when it is considered that 
for fifty frames in a hive it only requires ma- 
chinery for five, should convince that the rna- 
chinery has been gathered into one place, 
when, to distribute it, there is comparatively 
little. Yours for Honey. 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 

IS A FIFTY-CENT MONTHLY 

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